Murray brothers fall at final hurdle in Thailand Open

The British No1, Andy Murray, and his brother Jamie missed out on a first doubles title together when they lost a champions tie-break in the Thailand Open final in Bangkok. The Murrays, who may have a Davis Cup future together, lost 6-2, 2-6, 10-4 to Israel's Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.

Jamie Murray, who at 20 is a year older than his better-known brother, is now threatening James Auckland for the British No1 ranking in doubles and will climb into the ATP top 100 today.

The Scottish brothers now travel to Tokyo and will face the Americans Eric Butorac and Travis Parrott in the first round of the Japan Open this week. Andy Murray is seeded fourth in the singles in Tokyo and, having been handed a bye through to the second round, will face Robin Vik or Jiri Novak. As 10th seed, Tim Henman also has a bye and will begin his tournament against Frank Dancevic or Marcos Daniel.

James Blake powered past a below-par Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-1 in less than an hour to win the Thailand singles title. The American stunned the Croatian by opening a 5-0 lead in the first set as Ljubicic failed to produce his trademark big serve.

Blake broke his opponent at the start of the second set and Ljubicic's game fell apart, the Croatian finding the net almost as often as the court. Blake used his pace and powerful backhand drives to put the match beyond his opponent and take his fourth title of the year.

"I felt like I was returning great because his serve was off from the start and it stayed off," the American said afterwards. "When he's winning it's because of his serve and I took advantage of that and heaped pressure on him the whole match. It was a combination of me playing well and him having a bad match."

Ljubicic, who was the top seed, said he was unhappy with his performance after playing well in the earlier rounds against high-calibre opposition. He said Blake had nothing to lose and won by cutting him out of the match at the start.

"It's disappointing because I wanted to fight for the title and I was never in it from the very first point," Ljubicic said. "He played good; he was returning my serves perfectly. My shots were going out when all his were landing in. When he plays like this I had to take more risks."

Russia's Anna Chakvetadze cruised past Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-1, 6-4 to win the Guangzhou Open for her first WTA singles title. The third-seeded Chakvetadze dominated throughout to earn her fourth win from four matches against Medina Garrigues, the fourth seed, including straight-sets victories this year in Berlin and Los Angeles.

Chakvetadze had been given her first appearance in a final when the top seed, Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, retired with heat illness during Saturday's semi-finals.